Asked by CNBC's John Harwood about ending birthright citizenship — an effort Trump has endorsed — Walker said Friday, "I'm not taking a position on it one way or another."

He added, "Until you secure the borders and enforce the laws, any discussion about anything else is really looking past the very things we have to do."

Since Trump included in his immigration platform Sunday the elimination of the longstanding practice of granting U.S. citizenship to anyone born on American soil, the issue has split the GOP 2016 primary.

First he said, "it’s not right for this country," and "that’s something we should, yeah, absolutely, going forward..."

But when pressed again by Hunt, he appeared to walk his support back, pivoting to a discussion of "enforcing the laws in this country."

To confuse matters further, his campaign issued a statement following his comments Monday: “We have to enforce the laws, keep people from coming here, enforce E-Verify to stop the jobs magnet, and by addressing the root problems we will end the birthright citizenship problem.”